Looking back at 2013, part 1

For the next two days, the Times-News will look back at the events that shaped our community last year. Today’s stories include crime, courts and accidents. Coming Thursday: The Economy, transitions, Elon and noteworthy events.

GIBSONVILLE — On July 20, a Gibsonville convenience store owner was shot and killed during a robbery. A little more than a month later, a woman was charged in the murder.

Takila Valencia Morris, 30, of 735F Slade St., Gibsonville, was charged with first-degree murder and attempted armed robbery in connection to the killing of 61-year-old Paresh Shah, the owner of Ken’s Quickie Mart.

Police alleged Morris shot Shah three times at close range at 10:45 p.m. July 20 after the two struggled inside the store. Shah died on the scene.

Morris was arrested at 8:30 p.m. Aug. 23 in Greensboro and taken to the Gibsonville Police Department before being taken to the Guilford County jail. The Guilford and Alamance County sheriff’s offices, State Bureau of Investigation, Elon Police Department, Elon Campus Police Department, Burlington Police Department and City-County Gang Task Force assisted in the investigation.

A vigil was held July 25 in Gibsonville to honor Shah, and about 400 people attended. The group began at the town greens and walked in a procession led by Shah’s family members down Main Street to the store that Shah had purchased May 1.

DENNIS DIXON SENTENCED TO LIFE IN CAPITAL CASE

After six weeks of trial — and just days shy of the sixth anniversary of Sara Dixon’s 2007 killing — Robert Dennis Dixon was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison for his stepmother’s murder.

Former banking executive Sara Dixon, 68, was found shot to death Nov. 30, 2007, inside her home at 2033 McCray Road. It was nearly two years before three men were charged in her slaying.

The jury found that Dennis Dixon, 49, hired Thomas Clay Friday, 40, and Matthew Devon Fields, 25, to commit the burglary and murder.

Dennis Dixon’s trial began Sept. 3 and included testimony from Friday and dozens more witnesses. The state, arguing for the death penalty, said Dixon had his stepmother killed because she’d placed his father in a nursing home, the bills from which required the sale of property he otherwise would have inherited. His defense argued that Friday planned the murder and later extorted Dennis Dixon.

The trial was put on hold for October after defense attorney Terry Alford suffered a heart attack. It resumed Nov. 4. The jury delivered the guilty verdict Nov. 15. They sentenced Dixon to life Nov. 21.

Fields’ case is pending. Friday pleaded guilty in 2012 in exchange for life imprisonment.

Dixon is currently housed in Central Prison in Raleigh.

PILOT KILLED IN CRASH, BUT HOUSES SPARED

A plane belonging to LabCorp was in the air four minutes after taking off Jan. 16 from Burlington-Alamance Regional Airport before crashing into a North Park ball field, killing the pilot but sparing a busy residential neighborhood.

Page 2 of 4 - According to the report from the National Transportation Safety Board, pilot David Gamble, 57, contacted controllers in Greensboro immediately after takeoff as he climbed to an assigned altitude of 3,000 feet.

The plane took off at 5:53 a.m. and crashed at 5:57 a.m. Gamble, who was killed, was the only person on board. Witnesses told the Times-News that it appeared Gamble made sure to crash the aircraft onto the ballfield, thereby avoiding homes nearby.

According to the report, Gamble was told immediately after takeoff to reset a transponder that allows the plane to be tracked. There was no further contact between the plane and controllers.

Gamble was flying a Pilatus PC-12/45 en route to Morristown, N.J. According to FAA records, he held an airline transport pilot certificate with multiple ratings. He also was certified as a flight instructor and had 6,279 hours of flight experience.

The crash site was approximately five miles from the airport. The force of the impact resulted in a crater that measured three feet deep. The debris field was 793 feet long and 298 feet wide.

Visibility was about 10 miles the morning of the crash. The wind was blowing about 4.5 mph. The crash happened near Mayco Bigelow Community Center off Sharpe Road.

TWO CHILDREN KILLED IN HOUSE FIRE

In March, two children were killed in Gibsonville by a house fire despite desperate attempts to save them.

The fire killed 1-year-old Jade Hawks and 4-year-old Mathew Ridge Powls, both of Gibsonville, who were trapped inside the house. Their grandfather, Fred Ridge, tried to save the children but was turned back by the intense heat of the fire. A passer-by, Steven Cosner of Danville, Va., also tried to rescue the children and suffered serious injuries in doing so. Local fundraisers were held later to help pay his medical expenses.

The children were pronounced dead at the scene.

An electric space heater was cited as the cause of the fire. The fire was ruled an accident by the Guilford County Fire Marshal’s Office and Guilford County Sheriff’s Office.

SUSPECT CHARGED IN SELLARS MURDER

In October, exactly a year after finding her skeletal remains in rural northern Alamance County, Burlington police arrested a man in the murder of 43-year-old Debra Dianne Sellars.

Rodney Lee Enoch, 42, of Burlington was charged with first-degree murder. He was arrested at the Alamance County jail, where he was awaiting trial on unrelated domestic violence charges.

Sellars and Enoch were involved in a dating relationship at the time of her death, police said.

Sellars was initially reported missing by her family April 24, 2012. At that time, they hadn’t seen her for several days. She was last known to be operating a 2000 gold Ford Windstar. Sellars had told her son on April 20, 2012, that she would be home in time for him to use the van they shared, but she never returned.

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TRAIN ACCIDENTS BECOME ALL TOO COMMON

At least three fatalities were reported in our area in 2013 when people were struck by trains in Burlington and Mebane. In all, there were four reported incidents involving trains, including a non-fatal Amtrak crash Jan. 27 when a car was trapped between the railroad crossing arms at the intersection of North Main Street and Webb Avenue, and was struck by a train.

In February, a man was struck and killed by an Amtrak train at the railway overpass at Fisher Street and Webb Avenue.

In July, a man was killed by an Amtrak train a few hundred yards from the Burlington Train Depot downtown.

In November, a man was hit by the Carolinian, an Amtrak train bound for New York, near Buckhorn Road near Mebane.

Accidents involving trains became such a concern in 2013 that the Norfolk Southern Railroad Co. started a Trespasser Abatement Program to warn people in Alamance County — particularly Elon and Burlington — about the hazards of illegally crossing railroad tracks.

SIX CHARGED IN MARCH HOMICIDE

The gruesome discovery of a man’s burned body March 29 in a lot on Louis Graham Road in northern Alamance County led to six people being charged in connection with the homicide.

One of those defendants could face the death penalty if found guilty of murder.

It took days for investigators to identify the body as Kenneth Joel Clapp, 47, by reconstruction and by tracing a receipt found with the body. An autopsy revealed Clapp died of a gunshot wound to the back and abdomen. Investigators think his body was burned after death.

Over the next months, investigators with the Alamance County Sheriff’s Department charged two men with murder and four others as accessories to murder.

Cameron Romero Graves, 24, of Mill Street in Graham and Marteese Rasheed Martin, 25, of Hall Avenue in Burlington were charged with first-degree murder. Authorities believe Martin lured Clapp to the home at 325 Hall Ave., where Graves then shot him.

Graves could face the death penalty if convicted. Prosecutors won’t seek the death penalty against Martin.

Solomon Tate, 23, his father, Phillip Jerome Tate, 52, of South Benbow Road in Greensboro, Ebony Nyiesha Franklin, 29, of Calloway Drive in Mebane and Sacorya Kateka Spinks, 26, of Penn Place in High Point were charged with accessory after the fact of first-degree murder. They’re accused of either aiding in the disposal of Clapp’s body or concealing evidence from police, warrants said.

SHERIFF, DOJ LOCKED IN ONGOING BATTLE

The U.S. Justice Department lawsuit filed against Sheriff Terry Johnson marked its one-year anniversary Dec. 20 after a year of legal wrangling.

In June 2010, the DOJ first notified the county and Johnson of an investigation into allegations of discriminatory policing and unconstitutional searches and seizures. On Sept. 18, 2012, the department issued a formal findings letter detailing its allegations, which Johnson has repeatedly denied.

Page 4 of 4 - The department invited the sheriff’s office to negotiate a court-enforceable agreement to remedy the situation. The sheriff’s office declined the offer. On Dec. 20, 2012, the department filed its complaint against Johnson and the sheriff’s office. The trial is scheduled to begin July 7.

Johnson was scheduled to conduct a press conference last February to address the allegations. It was postponed after Johnson suffered a heart attack Feb. 2. Johnson fully recovered from bypass surgery and returned to office full-time later in the year.

The DOJ complaint alleges that ACSO routinely discriminates against and targets Latinos for enforcement action, in violation of the U.S. Constitution and Section 14141 of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994.

The county spent $174,572 from August 2011 through Dec. 11, 2013, on Johnson’s defense. The payments have been made to Stark Law Group and Turrentine Law Firm, where attorney Chuck Kitchen, who is representing Johnson in the case, has been employed.